blogs.straitstimes.com Archives - 14 January 2012, Saturday

By Avish Joseph Lead Consultant [email protected] On a Tuesday morning in September 2011, we at Bell Pottinger Digital held a collaboration meeting with The Straits Times' Political Desk in our Suntec City office to conceive and design a social media research project that w...

By Grace Chng Editor, Digital Life [email protected] Two gadgets caught my eye at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Firstly, gaming company Razer has a bold and stunning gaming tablet concept. Code-named Fiona, it is a tablet souped up to play PC games such as Warhammer 40,00...

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By Desmond Lim Photojournalist [email protected] 1) How did you come up with the idea for the project? The idea for the project came about through our usual photographers' informal idea-storming sessions. People often ask where ideas come from. But really, it's hard to pinpoint becaus...

By Lin Zhaowei Journalist [email protected] "I may never have completed my education if not for her." That was the similar reply from two people I met on Friday afternoon, when I visited the wake of Mrs Priscilla Krempl, principal of St Andrew's Secondary from 1996 to 2001 and Bedok ...

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By Grace Chua Reporter [email protected] In sunny Singapore, we've all been told: Wear sunscreen. It's good for your skin. But now, it turns out, scientists from Nanyang Technological University have found that nanoparticles of zinc oxide, a substance used in many sunscreens and cosmet...

By Joel Cooper Copy Editor [email protected] Hacking phones, bribing cops - it seems nothing is off limits for the sleazy tabloid pack. But despite the growing backlash, one particularly sordid and unethical journalist has so far managed to escape unscathed. Don't be fooled by his b...

By Bernard Tan [email protected] As a Singaporean, I thought Joseph Schooling's jaw-dropping record-breaking 200m butterfly swim in Palembang was the moment of the 26th South-east Asian (SEA) Games. On Saturday, a young lady with a badminton racket did one better. At the Istor...

By Dr Yong Tze Tein [email protected] 'Congratulations!' I beamed happily at Kim. It was the 1990s, when I was still a trainee in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Driven by the desire to have children after 10 years of marriage, and having saved enough money, Kim had come for an In-...

By Nicholas Yong Reporter [email protected] It is always an uncanny thing to see history repeated before your very eyes. I am sure it is nothing new for fathers, teachers and mentors. It must be a sign of age, given that most people read about historical events in books, as opposed to w...

By Joel Cooper Copy Editor [email protected] When Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London flat in July, fans were devastated but maybe not that surprised. It was no secret that the British soul diva with the towering beehive hairdo and even bigger talent had been fighting a losin...

By Ng Tze Yong ST Online Social Media Editor [email protected] I have only been to Bukit Brown Cemetery twice. Once, when I got lost on a bicycle. And the second time, last Sunday, when my wife and I signed up for a tour with the Asia Paranormal Investigators (API) on a whim. Oh, I t...

By Chua Mui Hoong Deputy Review Editor [email protected] It took all of 10 minutes for Stanchart to give me $90. I didn’t even ask for it. It came knocking on my door, in the form of a very courteous and efficient young man. I was passing through Novena MRT, on an errand, when I was...

By Yeong Ah Seng Digital Technology Editor [email protected] Like most Apple fans, I have never met the man. But we all seem to know him through his products and the yearly appearances at MacWorld shows in San Francisco. What is it that triggers such a huge outpouring of grief and acco...

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By Grace Chng Editor, Digital Life [email protected] There is no iPhone5. Instead you get the same look of the iPhone 4. An iPhone 4S instead was announced by Apple early Wednesday morning (Singapore time). However, do not be deceived. In the old body is a set of new tech innards. Wh...

By Grace Chng Editor, Digital Life [email protected] Go to the Amazon website (www.amazon.com ) and a letter from its chief executive Jeff Bezos greets you. It says that it is a company that 'works hard to charge consumers less'. With this message, Mr Bezos launched its attack at the...

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By Francis Chan Assistant News Editor [email protected] I can still remember the feeling of nausea as I looked up the steps on the terraces of the old National Stadium in Kallang. The voice of my coach bellowing from the top of the stadium still rings quite clearly in my mind. “Hurr...

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By Nirmal Ghosh Thailand Correspondent [email protected] Across the world, to varying degrees, girls face discrimination. A new study released in Bangkok on Thursday by the organisation Plan International, which works in over 50 developing countries in support of vulnerable and disadv...

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By Nirmal Ghosh Thailand Correspondent [email protected] Last Saturday morning I found myself balancing on the tailgate of a pickup truck loaded with some 30 live sharks in plastic bags. It was one of two trucks, transporting 60 young sharks in all. Dive instructor Jean Christophe Tho...

By Tessa Wong Political Correspondent [email protected] On Sunday as my Facebook and Twitter feeds lit up with friends tweeting about their curry lunches and dinners, I was slaving away in my kitchen making beef stew. I had heard about Curry Day about two weeks ago, when several friend...

By Himaya Quasem Assistant to Editor [email protected] Amid the looted shops and burnt out cars, one element of the recent riots in Britain stood out as particularly shocking. Some of the rioters were as young as nine. Even at such tender years, children in urban areas across Britain...

By Ronald Kow Assistant Editor, Editorial Systems Support [email protected] LET me tell you this story which I heard during my schooldays and it is, in a way, something that was said in a speech upon graduation. An American farmer had high hopes in his daughter, who was an only child...

By Ng Tze Yong ST Online Social Media Editor [email protected] HANGING up the Singapore flag every National Day used to be a ritual when I was a kid. Every year, in the weeks leading up to Aug 9, my mother would reach into the nether regions of the storeroom in our Bukit Purmei 4-roo...

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A lot of adults talk about the ‘rat race’ of corporate life, but I don’t know anything about that. I’m not eighteen yet - I just finished my A-level equivalents, and I’ve only had an office job for about four weeks (and don’t my bosses and supervisors know it). But I do know about the...

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'I'm going to bed before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us all killed - or worse, expelled.' Hermione Granger, 11, a first-year student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, had just returned to her dormitory with her friends, Ron Weasley and Harry Pott...

For the past month, I have been a regular commuter on China’s high speed trains, zipping up and down the country between major cities including Nanjing, Wuxi and Shanghai. On my first ride, I marvelled at the sleek, white carriages, the spotless interiors, the warmth of the service st...

Tan Herng Yih defends Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as the new Transformers lead actress People around me say Megan Fox did a better job in Transformers as compared to Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Of course, if you were to compare both the actresses, I have to agree that Megan played her ro...

Alphonsus Chern Photojournalist Gone Too Soon July 21, 2011 Thursday, 01:47 PM Alphonsus Chern explores the length of the KTM railway tracks in Singapore One of the things I really wanted to do in my teens was to walk the length of the KTM railway tracks from Woodlands to Tanjong Paga...

I remember well enough the pride and conviction in Mr Hashim Muji's voice when I spoke to him way back in 2007. “How long do you think the trains will run through Singapore?” I asked. Declared the KTM Bukit Timah station master, “Another 900 years!” Mr Hashim and his family moved from...

Nirmal Ghosh meets with two Red Shirt leaders in hiding. MY REPORT following recent interviews with two once-prominent red shirt leaders, both of whom are now in hiding, is out in the print edition of The Straits Times on Thursday. The interviews took place on condition of anonymity, ...